The New Apple Watch Ultra: A Game-Changer for Productivity and Style

As someone who has been covering the Apple Watch from various angles over the years, I'm excited to share my thoughts on the latest addition to the Apple Watch family - the Ultra. This new model is designed to be more rugged, durable, and feature-rich than its predecessors, making it a great option for those looking to upgrade their wearable experience.

One of the standout features of the Apple Watch Ultra is its ability to make phone calls with better sound quality. The new device boasts a dual speaker system that can blast out a siren at 86 decibels, combined with improved mics that allow people on the other end to hear me more clearly. This means I'm likely to start taking phone calls on my Apple Watch more often, which is a game-changer for productivity and convenience.

The Apple Watch Ultra also features an ultra-rugged design that's built to withstand everyday wear and tear. As someone who hates scratching up their Apple Watch, this feature alone makes the Ultra worth considering. I've had my fair share of mishaps in the past - like accidentally swinging my watch into the arm of a treadmill while on the move - and it's a constant battle to keep my device looking new. The Ultra's rugged design is a welcome change, making it easier to enjoy my Apple Watch without worrying about damage.

However, there are some drawbacks to consider when opting for the Ultra. One of the most noticeable is its design - in my opinion, it looks chunkier and less sleek than previous models, like the Series 8. While it's not ugly by any means, the chunkiness may be a concern for those who prioritize style and comfort on their wrist all night long.

Another trade-off to consider is the cost. The Ultra starts at $799, which is significantly more than its predecessor. Additionally, if you want to purchase one of the new Ultra bands, each costs $99 - another added expense. However, as someone who pre-ordered this device, I'm excited to put it through its paces and see how it performs in my daily life.

The Apple Watch Ultra is part of a growing trend towards ruggedization and durability in the wearable space. As people become more adventurous with their fitness tracking and other activities, they're looking for devices that can keep up - whether that's on the go or in harsh environments. The Ultra is designed to be just that, making it an excellent choice for anyone who wants a reliable and feature-rich Apple Watch that can handle anything life throws its way.

For those interested in staying up-to-date with all things Apple, I'm excited to share that this new device marks another milestone in my ongoing pursuit of Apple-related content. From tech tips and tricks to reviews and comparisons, I'll be putting the Ultra through its paces and sharing my findings with you - so if you want to stay informed about the latest developments in the world of Apple, hit subscribe and get ready for more.

In addition to this review, I'm working on a new productivity course specifically designed for those in the Apple ecosystem. As someone who's passionate about helping others optimize their workflow and reduce burnout, I've put together a comprehensive guide that covers everything from app recommendations to smart home automation. If you're looking to get more done and enjoy a better work-life balance, sign up for notifications by visiting the link in my description - and as always, thanks for your support!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's chris today i'm going to share with you several reasons why somebody like me who won't be climbing mount everest anytime soon who won't be swimming in shark-infested waters any time soon pre-ordered the apple watch ultra which will hopefully give you some things to think about as you consider which apple watch is right for you this year adventure awaits clearly apple created a watch here that extreme sports enthusiasts would like more than the regular traditional apple watch now how big is that particular market no idea it really doesn't matter because what i do know is that the market for people who want to be seen as adventurous or want to feel like they could be adventurous is much bigger but what's interesting is i don't fit into either of those categories i wouldn't classify myself as an adventurer or as someone who wants to be seen as an adventurer and yet i still pre-ordered an apple watch ultra so let me lay it out there for you like this i'm not at all interested in things like precision dual frequency gps the ability to operate at negative 20 degrees celsius the exclusive wayfinder watch face although it is pretty cool the super crazy extra special bands made for specific adventures the water resistance that works up to 100 meters the ip6x dust resistance the 86 decibel siren the depth gauge running form efficiency info a super accurate compass or a full featured dive computer etc etc etc but let me share with you several features that i am going to enjoy on my everyday adventures despite not being an extreme rock climber right and i'm gonna save the best one for last but these are all really good one thing i'm really excited for here is the longer battery life with previous apple watches i've had to be really meticulous with how and when i charged because i wanted to track my sleep which means i couldn't just charge it overnight like someone who didn't track their sleep and if you've ever not charged your apple watch enough and have ended up in battery reserve mode at just the wrong time before you know exactly how annoying that can be where it's basically just showing you the time and the rest of it is a big brick that you're wearing around on your wrist that's not cool and if you're going to be able to go 60 hours in low power mode i mean all the better the second thing that an everyday adventure like myself can really enjoy about the ultra is the up to two times brighter display outdoors in the sun i don't know about you but in the past there have been times when i've had to shade the screen in order to see it when i'm outside on a really bright day and that's really stupid it's frustrating you shouldn't have to do that for your watch so up to 2 000 nits of brightness versus just 1 000 nits on the series 8 which by the way is no brighter than the bottom of the barrel se is an awesome improvement and yes i'm really really excited more excited than a person should be about a button about the new action button which lets you customize what happens when you press this physical basically shortcut button so you can set it to do things like launch a specific app or workout and the mega athletes out there are going to use this to do things like transition from one leg of their triathlon to another but according to matthew cassanelli regular people like myself are going to also be able to program the action button to do anything because it uses the app intents api which we're not going to get into here using apple's shortcuts so if right out of the box the action button doesn't do the thing that you really want it to do you can make it do whatever you can dream up for it to do using shortcuts and then there's this screen which is a lot bigger now to illustrate here when the series 7 came out it had 20 percent larger screen area than the model before it and here's what i said about that at the time the screen here is like 20 bigger and you're gonna hear a lot of reviewers saying it's insignificant it doesn't really matter it's not a reason to upgrade but i gotta tell you the very first time i turn this on saw the initial setup screen i noticed immediately that the screen was bigger when i saw the screen to enter the passcode and i saw how big these buttons felt that's the thing it feels bigger it's not about looks it feels different it's subtle but it's more significant than i think people are giving it credit for so that was for the series seven now the ultra has 27 more screen real estate than the se and also seven percent more screen area than the eight and based on my previous experience i think that's going to make a very tangible awesome difference speaking of screens you probably should check out the daily tech wallpaper packs i'll link them up for you down in the description so you can make the screen on your iphone your mac and your ipad look a bit more interesting also you know me as someone who's covered the apple watch from many different angles over the years including different apps for it ways to make it more productive i'm working on a productivity course that's just for people in the apple ecosystem so if you want to get more done and have less burnout you might want to sign up for notifications using the form down in the description so i can ping you when that course is live in the next two to three months i gotta tell you i'm also super excited about the dual speaker and the triple mic setup here particularly for phone calls now in the past i only took a call on my apple watch if i had to and it was passable it was okay it was better than nothing that's for sure but people always sounded just pretty distant not very loud and that was just in general but especially in a loud environment but now we've got a second speaker which by the way can blast out a siren at 86 ear ruining decibels combined with better mics so people on the other end can hear me better and now we have a situation where i probably won't mind i'm guessing taking phone calls on the apple watch now i'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on this one but the ultra is obviously more rugged now subscribers have heard me say this a lot here on the channel but i hate scratching up my apple watch and i've done it many times over the years on the dumbest things like i'll be on the treadmill and i'll accidentally swing the watch into the arm of the treadmill these things happen just in everyday usage you know it's a fitness device and it'll get scratched up and then it doesn't feel new anymore and that's really stupid so an apple watch that's just tougher that all on its own is worth paying a little bit extra for for me in my opinion uh just right there even in my non-everest descending life but here's honestly what might be the biggest reason for me and some of you might think this is the dumbest stupidest reason but still the ultra just looks different i mean the apple watch has become so mainstream in the last few years they're just everywhere i mean when i got into apple stuff a long time ago it wasn't normal to have a mac it wasn't mainstream it was more of an indie thing and that was part of the appeal and now apple stuff is ubiquitous it's everywhere so yeah i kind of like the idea of not seeing an ultra on every wrist in town that said though there are some drawbacks somewhat obvious drawbacks if you go with the ultra number one is the design i don't think it looks better or as good as the series eight for instance there are reasons why it seems like everyone and their dog have an apple watch one of them being it does just look good it's a nice look so by contrast the ultra is super chunky looking and i wouldn't say it looks bad nobody wants to wear something bad looking on their wrist it looks good still it's just not as good but that chunkiness is gonna play a role in like how comfortable it is to sleep in like if you're really into monitoring your sleep right tracking your sleep are you gonna want something that's a little stealthier and a little smoother or something that's chunkier you know on your wrist all night and bigger i mean these are the trade-offs and then there's the cost doesn't matter what you go with you're going to get cellular and it's going to start at 7.99 and the bands here if you want one of the bands that go with it although other non-uh ultra bands will be compatible here i mean those are 99 each so this does just cost more that's a different uh trade-off and downside as well but like i said i pre-ordered one of these so if you want to see you know what i think of this all the stuff that i talked about in this video over the long haul you know as i'm using it as i go about my everyday adventures uh then hit subscribe if you haven't already get signed up for our newsletter comes out on fridays puts discovery of cool apps and accessories on autopilot for you apple fans out there also we got a podcast that's well worth tuning into where we're gonna go more in depth on everything going on with apple and also what's going on here at daily tech as well people say it's kind of like hanging out with a friend you can sign up for those down in the description get signed up for the course notifications check out our wallpapers of course that's what helps keep this channel running and going so thanks for your support and i'll catch you in the next video laterhey it's chris today i'm going to share with you several reasons why somebody like me who won't be climbing mount everest anytime soon who won't be swimming in shark-infested waters any time soon pre-ordered the apple watch ultra which will hopefully give you some things to think about as you consider which apple watch is right for you this year adventure awaits clearly apple created a watch here that extreme sports enthusiasts would like more than the regular traditional apple watch now how big is that particular market no idea it really doesn't matter because what i do know is that the market for people who want to be seen as adventurous or want to feel like they could be adventurous is much bigger but what's interesting is i don't fit into either of those categories i wouldn't classify myself as an adventurer or as someone who wants to be seen as an adventurer and yet i still pre-ordered an apple watch ultra so let me lay it out there for you like this i'm not at all interested in things like precision dual frequency gps the ability to operate at negative 20 degrees celsius the exclusive wayfinder watch face although it is pretty cool the super crazy extra special bands made for specific adventures the water resistance that works up to 100 meters the ip6x dust resistance the 86 decibel siren the depth gauge running form efficiency info a super accurate compass or a full featured dive computer etc etc etc but let me share with you several features that i am going to enjoy on my everyday adventures despite not being an extreme rock climber right and i'm gonna save the best one for last but these are all really good one thing i'm really excited for here is the longer battery life with previous apple watches i've had to be really meticulous with how and when i charged because i wanted to track my sleep which means i couldn't just charge it overnight like someone who didn't track their sleep and if you've ever not charged your apple watch enough and have ended up in battery reserve mode at just the wrong time before you know exactly how annoying that can be where it's basically just showing you the time and the rest of it is a big brick that you're wearing around on your wrist that's not cool and if you're going to be able to go 60 hours in low power mode i mean all the better the second thing that an everyday adventure like myself can really enjoy about the ultra is the up to two times brighter display outdoors in the sun i don't know about you but in the past there have been times when i've had to shade the screen in order to see it when i'm outside on a really bright day and that's really stupid it's frustrating you shouldn't have to do that for your watch so up to 2 000 nits of brightness versus just 1 000 nits on the series 8 which by the way is no brighter than the bottom of the barrel se is an awesome improvement and yes i'm really really excited more excited than a person should be about a button about the new action button which lets you customize what happens when you press this physical basically shortcut button so you can set it to do things like launch a specific app or workout and the mega athletes out there are going to use this to do things like transition from one leg of their triathlon to another but according to matthew cassanelli regular people like myself are going to also be able to program the action button to do anything because it uses the app intents api which we're not going to get into here using apple's shortcuts so if right out of the box the action button doesn't do the thing that you really want it to do you can make it do whatever you can dream up for it to do using shortcuts and then there's this screen which is a lot bigger now to illustrate here when the series 7 came out it had 20 percent larger screen area than the model before it and here's what i said about that at the time the screen here is like 20 bigger and you're gonna hear a lot of reviewers saying it's insignificant it doesn't really matter it's not a reason to upgrade but i gotta tell you the very first time i turn this on saw the initial setup screen i noticed immediately that the screen was bigger when i saw the screen to enter the passcode and i saw how big these buttons felt that's the thing it feels bigger it's not about looks it feels different it's subtle but it's more significant than i think people are giving it credit for so that was for the series seven now the ultra has 27 more screen real estate than the se and also seven percent more screen area than the eight and based on my previous experience i think that's going to make a very tangible awesome difference speaking of screens you probably should check out the daily tech wallpaper packs i'll link them up for you down in the description so you can make the screen on your iphone your mac and your ipad look a bit more interesting also you know me as someone who's covered the apple watch from many different angles over the years including different apps for it ways to make it more productive i'm working on a productivity course that's just for people in the apple ecosystem so if you want to get more done and have less burnout you might want to sign up for notifications using the form down in the description so i can ping you when that course is live in the next two to three months i gotta tell you i'm also super excited about the dual speaker and the triple mic setup here particularly for phone calls now in the past i only took a call on my apple watch if i had to and it was passable it was okay it was better than nothing that's for sure but people always sounded just pretty distant not very loud and that was just in general but especially in a loud environment but now we've got a second speaker which by the way can blast out a siren at 86 ear ruining decibels combined with better mics so people on the other end can hear me better and now we have a situation where i probably won't mind i'm guessing taking phone calls on the apple watch now i'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on this one but the ultra is obviously more rugged now subscribers have heard me say this a lot here on the channel but i hate scratching up my apple watch and i've done it many times over the years on the dumbest things like i'll be on the treadmill and i'll accidentally swing the watch into the arm of the treadmill these things happen just in everyday usage you know it's a fitness device and it'll get scratched up and then it doesn't feel new anymore and that's really stupid so an apple watch that's just tougher that all on its own is worth paying a little bit extra for for me in my opinion uh just right there even in my non-everest descending life but here's honestly what might be the biggest reason for me and some of you might think this is the dumbest stupidest reason but still the ultra just looks different i mean the apple watch has become so mainstream in the last few years they're just everywhere i mean when i got into apple stuff a long time ago it wasn't normal to have a mac it wasn't mainstream it was more of an indie thing and that was part of the appeal and now apple stuff is ubiquitous it's everywhere so yeah i kind of like the idea of not seeing an ultra on every wrist in town that said though there are some drawbacks somewhat obvious drawbacks if you go with the ultra number one is the design i don't think it looks better or as good as the series eight for instance there are reasons why it seems like everyone and their dog have an apple watch one of them being it does just look good it's a nice look so by contrast the ultra is super chunky looking and i wouldn't say it looks bad nobody wants to wear something bad looking on their wrist it looks good still it's just not as good but that chunkiness is gonna play a role in like how comfortable it is to sleep in like if you're really into monitoring your sleep right tracking your sleep are you gonna want something that's a little stealthier and a little smoother or something that's chunkier you know on your wrist all night and bigger i mean these are the trade-offs and then there's the cost doesn't matter what you go with you're going to get cellular and it's going to start at 7.99 and the bands here if you want one of the bands that go with it although other non-uh ultra bands will be compatible here i mean those are 99 each so this does just cost more that's a different uh trade-off and downside as well but like i said i pre-ordered one of these so if you want to see you know what i think of this all the stuff that i talked about in this video over the long haul you know as i'm using it as i go about my everyday adventures uh then hit subscribe if you haven't already get signed up for our newsletter comes out on fridays puts discovery of cool apps and accessories on autopilot for you apple fans out there also we got a podcast that's well worth tuning into where we're gonna go more in depth on everything going on with apple and also what's going on here at daily tech as well people say it's kind of like hanging out with a friend you can sign up for those down in the description get signed up for the course notifications check out our wallpapers of course that's what helps keep this channel running and going so thanks for your support and i'll catch you in the next video later\n"